Medical personnel, schools lead sources locally of CPS reports

Each year in Wichita County, about 1,900 reports are filed with Child Protective Services based on suspicions of child abuse or neglect.

In the past five years, the agency has fielded almost 9,500 reports in Wichita County, according to data on CPS intakes available of the state's website.

While not every investigation results in the suspicions being confirmed, local agencies who work with CPS request the public to continue to consider a potential victim's safety and notify authorities.

"We don't want you to try to guess," said Denise Roberts, executive director of Patsy's House Child Advocacy Center. "Let the professionals investigate and do what they need to do. If you have reasonable suspicion of abuse, make the report and err on the side of safety."

Despite recent allegations of two Wichita Falls ISD principals failing to report suspected cases of child sexual abuse on their campuses, schools have steadily remained one of the top sources of allegations received by CPS in Wichita County.

WFISD Communications Director Ashley Thomas said the district has not compiled the data of how many CPS reports have been made by each school.

According to CPS data, schools in Wichita County have submitted an average of 281 cases per year for the past five years – the second largest single source each of the past four years.

At least within the past five years, medical personnel have filed the most reports to CPS in Wichita County with an average of 321 per year.

Relatives – 236 reports per year – are the third largest source of allegations in Wichita County during that time span, according to CPS data.

An average of about 266 people in Wichita County each year file allegations with the agency either anonymously or leave the source blank or unknown.

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Pinwheels are lined up at Pinwheels for Patsy's House Saturday, April 1, 2017, in front of Patterson Honda. Each pinwheel represents a victim of child abuse in Wichita County.(Photo: Lauren Roberts/Times Record News)

According to Texas law, professionals – such as medical personnel and educators – legally must make the report within 48 hours.

The law defines a professional reporter as "anyone who is licensed or certified by the state or works for an agency or facility licensed or certified by the state and has contact with children as a result of their normal duties."

They also may not delegate their responsibility to anyone else or rely on another person to make the report of suspected abuse.

However, any adult who has a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect is required by Texas law to notify either local authorities or CPS.

Once received, the state agency screens the intake report is assigned a priority to establish a time frame for the investigations.

Around 1 in 5 cases in Wichita County are assigned as a "Priority I" response, meaning they "concern children who appear to face an immediate risk of abuse or neglect that could result in death or serious harm." In these situations, CPS must initiate its investigation within 24 hours.

About 66 percent of cases locally are assigned a "Priority II" response, meaning the investigation must begin with 72 hours. These are situations where there doesn't appear to be an immediate threat to the child.

In Wichita County, between 11.3 and 13.5 percent of cases in the past three years are not assigned. The average for the Abilene region, which includes Wichita and 29 counties, is about 17.9 percent over the same span.

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In the state of Texas, all adults are legally mandated to report suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services or local authorities in an effort to keep children safe.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)

During their investigations, CPS caseworkers look into a variety of allegations – sometimes multiple types of abuse or neglect in the same case.

While there may be several types of abuse alleged in a report, neglectful supervision accounts for nearly half of the complaints made in Wichita County.

Neglectful supervision is defined by CPS as "placing the child in or failing to remove the child from a situation that a reasonable person would realize requires judgment or actions beyond the child’s level of maturity, physical condition, or mental abilities."

It must also result "in bodily injury or a substantial risk of immediate harm to the child."

The category can also pertain to putting or keeping a child in a situation where he or she "would be exposed to a substantial risk of sexual conduct harmful to the child."

Out of the 9,636 allegations made locally in the past three years, 4,907 pertained to neglectful supervision. There were also 1,871 reports of physical abuse and 1,040 reports of sexual abuse.

There were 2,116 confirmed victims during that span following the investigations. Of those, 1,439 suffered neglectful supervision, 227 from physical abuse and 136 from sexual abuse.

Physical neglect, or the "failure to provide the child with food, clothing or shelter necessary to sustain the life or health of the child," is the other most common allegation and confirmed cases in Wichita County.

In these investigations, caseworkers are required to exclude if the parent, guardian or caretaker can't provide these things adequately primarily due to "financial inability unless relief services had been offered and refused."

In 2017, there were 3,167 total allegations made with 693 confirmed victims.

There were 1,634 reports made of neglectful supervision with 448 confirmed cases, and 364 reports of physical neglect with 98 confirmed.

Of the 600 complaints of physical abuse and 359 reports of sexual abuse made, 79 and 45 victims, respectively, were confirmed by investigators.

If you see or suspect any of these types of things are happening to a child, call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 800-252-5400 if the situation is urgent and needs to be investigated within 24 hours.

If it is an emergency or life-threatening situation that must be dealt with immediately, call 911 before calling the hotline.

For situations that don't need to be investigated right away, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has provided a secure website (www.texasabusehotline.org) to report suspicions of abuse, neglect and exploitation of children, adults with disabilities or people 65 years of age or older.